Monday, July 21, 2008

I started another blog today. One to hold all the great pictures I am taking. I surely have not figured out how to upload the picture and get the captions in the right place. It seems to me I am missing something about how this is done. All the other blogs seem to have the written word close to the picture of what they are talking about. I can't seem to get it under the picture or even beside it. It looks one way and then when I publish it seems to just go where it wants to. Just about made it impossible to name the flowers.I have time to continue to search other blogs and look for ways to make this stuff happen. One day in the not so distant future I plan to have a good blog. In the mean time anyone who has any tips that might speed up the process .....feel free to jump right in and clue me in.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Time to Celebrate. July 4th. Independence Day. Since we all spend so much time away from home we decided to have our own celebration at home. I got off work on Monday and begin gathering all the food and drinks for a real hardy bunch. The oldest grandson (who lives next door) was as excited as me about everyone getting together again so soon. We were all together just a month ago and had so much fun. Gramps is traveling from Houston and the other grand kids are coming from Arkansas. They were all coming in on Thursday. As it turned out our daughter just dropped her two kids off and went to the cabin for some peace and quite time. So it was just me and all the grand kids until Gramps got there. It wasn't long before we heard him honking as he came down the drive. Kids running dogs barking. The place is alive with excitement.

They unloaded the fireworks from the truck and begin looking over the package. Wow, this is gonna be so cool. We decided to have a wiener roast that night and just set off a few of the fire works just to get the week end started and make sure they work.

Up late, up early. Breakfast for all and the preparation for the BBQ began before noon. The Older kids started to come in and out but the grand kids stuck right with us.

It was hard to wait until it got dark. We ate, moved to the porch and watched the guys get set up for our big display. We were saving The Big Dog for the big finally.

I am a year smoke free now.It just amazes me when I look back at the things I have learned in my journey to quit smoking.It took almost that long to get the smell out of my house. That too is gone now.I quit at one of the lowest points in my life. I think I just felt that things could not get worse and the only way I could make a difference was with me. Smoking had been a part of my life since I was 13 years old. When something good happened I celebrated with a smoke. When something bad happened I morned with a smoke. Births, deaths and weddings were all reasons to calm my nerves and having a smoke did that I thought at the time.I smoked, my husband smoked all our friends smoked and as our children got old enough they smoked. It was not until I started to get grandchildren that the idea of quitting was even mentioned. Doctors orders, no smoking while pregnant. No smoking around the child. Needless to say thing got pretty restless around my house and the drinking increased as the smoking became something to hide. I went to a smoking class, I took Welbutrin, and I snuck around to smoke. For almost a year I smoked only when I was alone. Needless to say I wasn't inviting many people over and I wasn't seeing my grand kids as often as I would have liked.Everyone had quit but me. How in the world will I ever be able to do this. I felt so bad most all the time. was it from smoking or from just being miserable inside myself. I began to wonder if I even knew myself. Things were sure not like I had hoped they would be at this age.Life is about choices. Those four words have changed my life. It was my choice. I needed to fix me and let everyone else fix themselves or stay as they are but my goal was to concentrate on me. Just me was a full time job. I started keeping a journal, joined a stop smoking site and lucked into meeting the greatest group of people you could imagine. They taught me so much about life and love and addiction and taking care of yourself. It has just been wonderful, even the crying for the first 6 months was worth it now.My first year celebration was much bigger than I had anticipated. Well wishes and gifts and just the thought was so touching. I am a lucky woman.A tropy, a certificate and flowers, all from other quitters, Now isn't that amazing!! Support from cyber space becomes real.